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Review – Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation Into War – Steven M. Gillon

03 Sep

Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation Into War
Author: Steven M. Gillon

Narrator: John Pruden
Run Time: 6 hours and 40 minutes

Book Description:
Franklin D. Roosevelt famously called December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.” History would prove him correct; the events of that day—when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor—ended the Great Depression, changed the course of FDR’s presidency, and swept America into World War II. In Pearl Harbor, acclaimed historian Steven M. Gillon provides a vivid, minute-by-minute account of Roosevelt’s skillful leadership in the wake of the most devastating military assault in American history. FDR proved both decisive and deceptive, inspiring the nation while keeping the real facts of the attack a secret from congressional leaders and the public. Pearl Harbor explores the anxious and emotional events surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor, showing how the president and the American public responded in the pivotal twenty-four hours that followed, a period in which America burst from precarious peace into total war.

Review:
I don’t typically listen to non-fiction audiobooks, but I was looking for something different and this one caught my eye. Having studied history in college, I found that WW2 was definitely a period that interested me – although the European theater was more to my liking than the Pacific theater or the homefront. But any historian knows FDR’s famous words just a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor – so seeing the lead up to how that speech came to be in the hours following the attack was intriguing.

I found Pruden’s narration to be spot on for the topic and the genre. There was really no need for multiple voices in a non-fiction book, although I would be curious to hear him narrator a fiction book to see his range…I know that I will be on the look-out for more books narrated by him in the future. I’ll also be seeking out more books written by Gillon, as he had a way of bringing a well known time period in history to life, with the minor details that likely are never studied by historians. It is those time periods that bring history to life.

 
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Posted by on September 3, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – The Keepsake – Tess Gerritsen

01 Sep

The Keepsake
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Series: #7 in the Rizzoli and Isles series

Narrator: Diedre Lovejoy
Run Time: 10 hrs and 51 minutes

Book Description:
For untold years, the perfectly preserved mummy had lain forgotten in the dusty basement of Boston’s Crispin Museum. Now its sudden rediscovery by museum staff is both a major coup and an attention-grabbing mystery. Dubbed “Madam X,” the mummy–to all appearances, an ancient Egyptian artifact– seems a ghoulish godsend for the financially struggling institution. But medical examiner Maura Isles soon discovers a macabre message hidden within the corpse–horrifying proof that this “centuries-old” relic is instead a modern-day murder victim.

To Maura and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, the forensic evidence is unmistakable, its implications terrifying. And when the grisly remains of yet another woman are found in the hidden recesses of the museum, it becomes chillingly clear that a maniac is at large–and is now taunting them.
Archaeologist Josephine Pulcillo’s blood runs cold when the killer’s cryptic missives are discovered, and her darkest dread becomes real when the carefully preserved corpse of yet a third victim is left in her car like a gruesome offering–or perhaps a ghastly promise of what’s to come.

Review:
Of all the books in the Rizzoli and Isles series that I have listened to this year, The Keepsake is one of my favorites. I loved how a museum, a place where many people wouldn’t necessarily choose to visit (unless you are a history dork like me!) as an option when visiting a new city. And yet, Ms Gerritsen wrote this book in a way that I hope will cause more people to choose to visit them. And added to that, there was the egyptology twist with mummies and artifacts. The various dead methods that the author choose to incorporate into the plot with the Archeology killer were particularly gruesome and unique from all the other books in the series. After finishing this book, I wanted to pick up a book about egyptian burial methods to read up on my history. To me, that is a sign of a good book, when I want to find a non-fiction book about something that was featured in a fiction book.

After listening to most of the books in the series so far, and playing the musical narrators for most of the books (I think Deidre Lovejoy is the 5th different one maybe), I have come to appreciate the different narration skills out there. For me, this was a solid performance. I can’t say that it completely blew me away, but I rather enjoyed it and it made my commute go a lot quicker for the 4 and a half days that it took me to complete it. I downloaded this from my library via the overdrive app, so I have no complaints about the production of it and didn’t notice any issues with the recording.

The Keepsake: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel (Rizzoli & Isles Novels) (Paperback)
The Keepsake: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel (Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles) (Kindle)

 
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Posted by on September 1, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Code Name Verity – Elizabeth Wein

31 Aug

Code Name Verity
Author: Elizabeth Wein

Book Description:
I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

Review:
I should have enjoyed the book more than I did. Its set during WW2 which is a time period of interest to me; it featured 2 teenage girls in interesting/difficult situations and in general, the description just sucked me in. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work. I can’t describe what it was or why I struggled with it – I just know that once I put it down, I wasn’t all that motivated to pick it up and while I did finish reading it, it wasn’t a completely enjoyable read, but it wasn’t completely horrendous either (I don’t even know if that makes sense)…

Maybe others will enjoy it more than I did, but the highest I can give it is 2 stars – meaning that it was ok but not enough for me to want to recommend it. However, if you are interested in reading it, the following are the links for purchasing it on Amazon:

Code Name Verity (Hardcover)
Code Name Verity (Kindle)

 
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Posted by on August 31, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Seriously…I’m Kidding – Ellen DeGeneres

30 Aug

Seriously…I’m Kidding
Author/Narrator: Ellen DeGeneres
Run Time: 3 hrs, 7 minutes

Book Description:
“Sometimes the greatest things are the most embarrassing.” Ellen Degeneres’ winning, upbeat candor has made her show one of the most popular, resilient and honored daytime shows on the air. (To date, it has won no fewer than 31 Emmys.) Seriously… I’m Kidding, Degeneres’ first book in eight years, brings us up to date about the life of a kindhearted woman who bowed out of American Idol because she didn’t want to be mean. Lively; hilarious; often sweetly poignant.

Review:
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a huge Ellen DeGeneres fan – I don’t know why, but I just don’t really like her. However, I did enjoy her narration of Dory in Finding Nemo…I mean, I walked around for days with “just keep swimming” stuck in my head…lol! However, when I was browsing the shelves at the library for a short-ish audiobook to fill in the time towards the end of a month, and I saw that this one was only 3 hours, I figured what the heck…why not.

I’ll also admit that authors for narrators typically don’t work for me because they don’t have the training that I feel they need in order to be successful. But I was proved wrong. Ellen’s narration had me in tears several times during this relatively short listen. I’m sure my co-workers were looking at me like I was insane because I was definitely laughing out loud.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about the book was how she took it from a listeners perspective and said listeners, instead of readers…she even devoted a chapter to random noises just for the audiobook people (and no I’m not kidding about that). Either way, I would recommend this for a quick, lite listening, if you need a bit of humor to get through the day. Overall, I’d give it 3 stars

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Monique and the Mango Rains – Kris Holloway

29 Aug

Monique and the Mango Rains
Author: Kris Holloway & John Bidwell

Book Description:
Monique and the Mango Rains is the compelling story of a rare friendship between a young Peace Corps volunteer and a midwife who became a legend. Monique Dembele saved lives and dispensed hope in a place where childbirth is a life-and-death matter. This book tells of her unquenchable passion to better the lives of women and children in the face of poverty, unhappy marriages, and endless backbreaking work. Monique’s buoyant humor and willingness to defy tradition were uniquely hers. In the course of this deeply personal narrative, as readers immerse themselves in the rhythms of West African village life, they come to know Monique as friend, mother, and inspired woman.

Review:
Over the last few months, I have discovered that various peace corps memoirs are a trove of information for various countries in my around the world challenge, because they are often set in countries that don’t have all that many book set in them, or written about them. Monique and the Mango Rains was no exception – through it we are told of the friendship that developed over the course of the 2 years that Kris Holloway was assigned to Mali for her Peace Corps job, working with Monique, who was one of the few midwives in the area, and the one who had the highest success rate in working with the women and children.

For me, it was a look at two lives that were so vastly different growing up, that merged for that two year period, and then remained merged over the next several years. They never truly diverged from each other. I felt myself want to cheer with Monique and Kris when they helped save a baby from dying of malnutrition, or when they were able to replace the birthing house with funds provided by the Peace Corps. There was just so much to be learned through-out the course of the book. Ultimately through, there was a sad ending which is disclosed in the opening to the book and I felt myself tearing up as I read that.

This book is a quick read, but I highly recommend it if people would like an incite into life in Western Africa in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.

Monique and Kris’s story can be purchased from Amazon here: Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali (paperback). And personally, I’ll be donating the copy that I bought to the library because who knows, maybe a teenager reading this book will be inspired to join the Peace Corps just like Kris and maybe they’ll meet their own Monique.

 
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Posted by on August 29, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Cold Comfort – Quentin Bates (@graskeggur)

28 Aug

Cold Comfort
Author: Quentin Bates
Series: #2 in the Gunnhilder Mystery

Narrator: Davina Porter
Run Time: 12 hours, 12 min

Review Copy Provided by AudiobookJukebox Solid Gold Reviewer program

Book Description:
Officer Gunnhildur, recently promoted from her post in rural Iceland to Reykjavík’s Serious Crime Unit, is tasked with hunting down escaped convict Long Ommi, who has embarked on a spree of violent score-settling in and around the city. Meanwhile, she’s also investigating the murder of a fitness guru in her own city-center apartment. As Gunna delves into the cases, she unearths some unwelcome secrets and influential friends shared by both guru and convict. Set in an Iceland plagued by an ongoing financial crisis, Gunna has to take stock of the whirlwind changes that have swept through the country—and the fact that at the highest levels of power, the system’s endemic corruption still leads, inevitably, to murder.

Review:
I have to admit after reading the first book in the series, I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue. The author provided an interesting look into the world of financial crime, but for some reason it just didn’t really work for me. It wasn’t in the writing style, but rather the subject. However, I typically have a rule of trying at least 2 books in any series before deciding one way or another whether I’ll continue or not. So when the second book showed up as a review copy, I jumped on the chance to listen to it, and see if maybe that changed my level of enjoyment of the series (as it has been known to before – either for the good or the bad). And I was pleasantly surprised.

Cold Comfort pick up a few months after the events of Frozen Assets, and for me, it was like seeing into the lives of Gunnhildur and her family and friends. When it came to character development, I found that this installment had much more description and I felt like I got to know them. Having the narration of Davina Porter also helped, because I can only assume that she received training in how to say certain names and words in Icelandic – although since I don’t speak the language, i can’t say so for sure…The mystery is the story kept me guessing until the very end and the person who did it, wasn’t the one that I expected it to be.

I’ll have to admit that i have a certain bias when it comes to Davina Porter’s narration – to me, she is the epitome of an audiobook narrator and I judge many of the other books that I listen to against my experiences listening to her. And her narration of Cold Comfort didn’t disappoint. For a non-Icelandic speaker, the pronunciation of certain names/words sounded authentic (although, I would love to hear the authors take on that) and it helped me be able to visualize in my head how to sound them out in the future. Although Icelandic, Finnish or another Scandinavian language is on my to-learn pile for sometime in the future. Although I have to admit that a few times while I was listening, I thought that I picked up on more of an English accent than what I assume an Icelandic one would be – but it wasn’t enough to distract me from the narration.

I have been impressed with previous audiobooks released by AudioGO in the past and this one was no exception. I’ll definitely continue to look to them for more audiobooks in the future. All in all, I have to say that I was glad I continued with the series and hope to see book 3 in the near future (the author has the title posted to his website, so I can only hope). I would recommend this series to people who like the slower pace of Henning Mankell, vice the faster Steig Larsson, as well as anyone who likes James Thompson, although Bates isn’t quite as dark.

You can purchase the book from Amazon Cold Comfort: An Officer Gunnhildur Mystery (Officer Gunnhildur Mysteries) (Hardcover), Cold Comfort: An Officer Gunnhildur Mystery (Officer Gunnhildur Mysteries) (Kindle) or Cold Comfort: An Officer Gunnhildur Mystery (Audiobook). If can also be purchased from audible.com (account required).

 
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Posted by on August 28, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – The Dirty Secrets Club – Meg Gardiner

16 Aug

The Dirty Secrets Club
Author:Meg Gardiner
Series: Book 1 in the Jo Beckett series

Narrator: Susan Erickson
Run Time: 12 hrs, 13 mins

This book can be purchased from Amazon using the following links: The Dirty Secrets Club (Paperback) or The Dirty Secrets Club (Jo Beckett) (Kindle)

Book Description:
An ongoing string of high-profile and very public murder-suicides has San Francisco even more rattled than a string of recent earthquakes: A flamboyant fashion designer burns to death, clutching the body of his murdered lover. A superstar 49er jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge. And most shocking of all, a U.S. attorney launches her BMW off a highway overpass, killing herself and three others.Enter forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett, hired by the SFPD to cut open not the victim’s body, but the victim’s life. Jo’s job is to complete the psychological autopsy, shedding light on the circumstances of any equivocal death. Soon she makes a shocking discovery: All the suicides belonged to something called the Dirty Secrets Club, a group of A-listers with nothing but money and plenty to hide. As the deaths continue, Jo delves into the disturbing motives behind this shadowy group – until she receives a letter that contains a dark secret Jo thought she’d left deep in her past, a secret that ends with the most chilling words of all: Welcome to the Dirty Secrets Club.

Review:
I had previously heard about Meg Gardiner’s books in a mystery group, but this was the first time that I had ever actually read or listened to one of her books. My biggest complaint with the book in general (and I have mused about this before), is that apparently in order to be a strong successful women in the field that she is in, there has to have been some sort of tragedy in their past that influences her life. Jo Beckett, in The Dirty Secrets Club, is exactly the same – although, unlike previous books where the tragedy is revealled early on, in TDSC, you don’t find out about what happened until about half-way through. There are flash-backs here and there, but the full-story is eventually devolved and you can see why Jo is how she is. It is just pet peeve of mine, that it seems there is this perception in many mystery/thriller/suspense books that the women has to be damaged in order to be successful…But moving on – I liked the idea of the Dirty Secrets Club, where the exposure of your secret could be hugely detrimental to your life/career if it were to be divulged.

When it came to the audiobook narration, normally I am a huge fan of Susan Erickson’s narration – I mean, she does the In Death series by JD Robb (a la Nora Roberts) that I adore. But I think, I have listened to some of them too recently, because as I was listened to TDSC, I kept hearing Rourke and Eve in my head, instead of Jo and the cast of characters in TDSC. I’m not saying that the narration was bad, in fact, I liked it – I just didn’t feel like I was getting the whole Meg Gardiner experience while listening because I had the preconceived notions of Erickson’s narration because of my previous experiences. If I hadn’t had those experiences with her, I might not have had any issues with the narration.

I am curious enough to want to know more about Jo in the future and will either likely listen to at least the next book in the series, or pick it up and read it.

 
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Posted by on August 16, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Timeless Desire – Gwyn Cready

15 Aug

Timeless Desire
Author: Gwyn Cready

Review Copy Provided by Publicist, Blue Dot Literary

Book Description:
Two years after losing her husband, overworked librarian Panna Kennedy battles to distract herself from crushing Grief, even as she battles to deal with yet another library budget cut. During a routine search within the library’s lower levels, Panna opens an obscure, pad-locked door and finds herself transported to the magnificent, book-filled quarters of a handsome, eighteenth-century Englishman.

She soon recognizes the man as Colonel John Bridgewater, the historic English war hero whose larger-than-life statue loomed over her desk.However, the life of the dashing Bridgewater is not at all what she imagined. He’s under house arrest for betraying England, and now looks upon her a beautiful and unexpected half-dressed visitor as a possible spy.

Despite bad first impressions (on both sides), Bridgewater nonetheless warms to Panna, and pulls her into his escape while both their hearts pull the other headlong into their soul-stirring secrets.Very quickly Panna is thrown into a whirlwind of high-stakes intrigue that sweeps her from Hadrian’s Wall to a forbidding stone castle in Scotland. And somewhere in the outland, Panna must decide if her loyalties lie with her dead husband, or with the man whose life now depends on her

Review:
I have to say that I laughed out loud when I got the request from the publicist to review this book. Just the day prior, I had brought one of Gwyn’s other books, Aching for Always to read for a challenge (I needed a book that had a word that rhymed with Breaking in the title) and I had previously read and enjoyed Gwyn’s other books, so I jumped on the chance to read an ARC of her newest book and Timeless Desire didn’t disappoint.

The one thing that I liked about this book was the use of the library as the method of traveling back in time. I don’t know whether it was supposed to be an analogy to how books can transport us elsewhere, but for me that is what the library as part of the storyline represented (or maybe I am just thinking too deep into it – which is entirely possible). The way the conflict in the historical part was written also made in interested in reading some historical stuff about Hadrian’s Wall (which will have to be added to the ever-increasing Mt. To-Be-Read). If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.

But as I am writing this review, I realize that some of the stuff I want to say in completely spoiler-ish, so close your eyes if you don’t want to know what happens…just kidding!! I wouldn’t do that to you guys. All I can say, is that I recommend both Timeless Desire and Gwyn’s other books if you are looking for a lite paranormal with time travel for a read. It only took new a day and a bit to read it (probably would have taken less time, if I didn’t have this silly thing called work that I had to do during the day).

Links to purchase the book from all major booksellers can be found by clicking HERE

 
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Posted by on August 15, 2012 in Book Review

 

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